Leicester City Council

The key requirement of the tendering exercise was to appoint the organisation that offered the best combination of skills, expertise, quality and cost effectiveness in line with the evaluation and award criteria as stated in the tender documents.

The Council’s preference was to appoint a single furniture provider for all aspects of the project. The requirement for a single supplier was based on limiting risk associated with the Project. The timescales for delivery were challenging and any delays on installation would impact on the Council’s exposure to further costs. The furniture contract was awarded to the tenderer who demonstrates best value, best quality and lowest risk. I.e. Leicester Office Furnishers!

``Leicester Office Furnishers have worked consistently to a very high standard throughout this lengthy project to meet all of our deadlines.”

Lorna Simpson, Project Manager

Leicester City Council had a large re-location project (that is still on-going) from one main building – Welford Place, to a variety of sites across Leicester City Centre. The Council required products that were good quality (ten year warranties) yet price conscious. They also wanted to keep the same ‘look’ throughout the sites and had very tight deadlines to adhere to.

The sites varied greatly in terms of accessibility, size and style of building and we often just have a couple of days to install 100’s of desks. Most of the sites comprised of open plan offices with desking, steel storage solutions including side filing units and lockers. Breakout areas were important and comprised a selection of café style furniture and soft seating. Meeting rooms featured across all sites and floors and offered a variety of meeting solutions including smaller modular tables through to solid boardroom tables to seat 32.

At the largest City Hall site there is a strong original Art Deco style which the council wanted to complement with the furniture styles. We looked at different solutions for these areas and provided samples so that the council could really get a feel for the products and what would be in-keeping yet practical.

“Leicester Office Furnishers were fantastic and worked around us, undertaking phased installations to suit our programme. Their communication with us was excellent and we always knew what to expect and when. They pulled out all the stops to help us get our staff moved in in time.”

It was important to us to have a solution to accommodate any requirements we had in line with our staff changes i.e. staff that require specific ergonomic solutions (e.g. height adjustable desks). Yet these solutions still needed to be in-keeping with the bulk of the rest of the furniture, the LOF team assisted us in achieving this. .

The work undertaken so far is of high value; worth approximately £1million over two years. Leicester Office Furnishers carried off this large-scale project impeccably. They are great team players.

The fitting and installation team are a credit to Leicester Office Furnishers. Nothing is ever too much trouble, they understand our needs and work around us. I’d certainly recommend them to anybody undertaking a similar project.” Lorna Simpson – Project Manager